Gasoline prices edge downward

Wednesday

May 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 30, 2007 at 8:01 PM

NEW YORK (AP)  Gasoline prices extended their pullback from last week's highs at the pump today, but crude-oil futures rose on worries about disruptions in Nigeria and gasoline supplies in the United States.

Average national retail gasoline prices slipped 0.4 cent overnight to $3.197 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are down 3 cents from their peak of $3.227 a gallon last Thursday.

But analysts are far from united on what the decline means.

I think that's a small respite from what's ahead of us, said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Fla. Cordier thinks prices could climb another 20 to 30 cents a gallon if gasoline inventories don't increase significantly, and soon.

But others think prices have peaked.

The retail downtrend should persist into June, wrote Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza on his blog, Speaking of Oil, today.